Chips n Truth
by MidnightHeir
Summary: Perception is EVERYTHING. Can one brother get another to see things his way? Raphael and Mike are about to have a conversation ...


_**Chips n Truth**_

**_Disclaimer;_** Though my father owns the first five seasons of the fabulous MASH, he doesn't actually own the rights to the characters, or their exploits. More the shame. Just as well the show is so good really! Consequentially, and I've said this WAY too many times now, I don't own no green reptilian turtle types either.

_**x-x-x-x**_

'_There's nothing in the dark that isn't in the light': __Major Frank Burns (Hawk's Nightmare) MASH_

The same, always the _fuckin'_ same. Somethin' goes down in the lair, and it always falls on his head. _Always_. Couldn't be Mikey's fault could it? Or Don screwing up? Nah, if there was a fault, it was his. And Raph was getting bloody sick of it. Always be Leo settin' things in motion. Again. _As usual_. Just cos he'd taken some of that prissy-shit responsibility that he was carpin' about an'be a lil over zealous with some Foot soldiers. _Fuckin' hypocrite_. An' now, he's gonna go out, get laid an'kick back. _If I was a frickin' human. _

_**x-x-x**_

Nature was his friend. It always had been, and always would. Many would stay in on a night with a thunder storm as violent and explosive as this. And they'd do it out of fear. But not Raph. He was too proud, and fearless to bow to anything. Whether it be his brothers will, or Mother Nature herself. The atmosphere, as always, was electric, the air crackled with the static that hung, shrouded within the shimmering black veil that descended every evening. Just the way he liked it. It was as if she cooked up these storms especially for him, as a means of admiring the beauty that could be found within wilful, unforgiving destruction.

Ream after ream of stinging rain hammered down onto mottled bottle green skin, but he didn't care. The icy pin pricks didn't serve to cool the simmering fire that was burning within. Nor did it sooth the blackish blue bruises that were spreading over his skin. With sickening predictability the screech of a burglar alarm rang out. What was he? New York's frickin' maid? For once he ignored it. Someone else could take the heat for once. A little bit of danger could do the ungrateful, snotty nosed store clerk some good.

Lightening split the sky above his head in a brave display of purples, greys and blue hues. It hit a TV aerial across the street. And it didn't bother him one bit. Don would call it too close for comfort. And Leo would call him crazy. If anything the shower of sparks and the additional white-blue lights only served to set his steadily pounding heart alight once again. With the storm raging around him, he didn't need to seek out the punks that were now leaving the store. _Fuckkit_ Leo would have a cow – and the thought amused him enough to garner a chuckle. The weather served to feed his primal, adrenaline fuelled urges. Nature understood destruction, and revelled in it. Just like he did. Retreating from the open ground he leapt from one rooftop to the next in a smooth motion that cast his inky black silhouette down into the alley below. And into the path of one actively seeking sibling.

_**x-x-x**_

"Fuck off Leo."

The lightening, and her angry, unreliable explosion betrayed the approaching turtle. In this weather there would only be one person stupid enough to come a'lookin'. Water and electricity, the mixture of fools, and yet he chose to turn around, and rest against the legs of a radio aerial. That was why he was doing it, because when Leo stuck his head above the parapet he'd get the scare of his life. And, on balance the risk, and potential loss of life more than compensated for that. _Should be a frickin'hoot _He couldn't help it, sometimes he just got reckless. Reckless and impulsive … not the best combination in the middle of a storm, but what the hey?

"Not Leo." Mike's voice got lost under a caphony of rumbling thunder and lashing rain.

"No shit." He shoulda known, there was no way in Hell Leo would ever make that amount of noise scaling a fire escape. There was no way in Hell Leo would scale a fire escape in this weather. The water continued to trace down over his angry, contorted face, whilst he moved to intercept his unwanted company. Blinking, Raph shook the water from his eyes before extending a hand down to the emerging head of Mikey. Yanking him up and over the precipice he made short work on the pleasantries. "Leo send yo'?"

"Nope." Sticking his tongue out Mikey shook his head from side to side violently. "I dog-gone done this all on my own." Smiling proudly, he puffed his chest out before him, his breezy smile melting under Raph's critical, loveless glare. "Jeez Raph, Ya pre-order this weather or somethin'?"

"Nope!" immitatin' Mike with sarcastic panache he turned on his heel. He'd ducked out because he didn't want to deal with Leo's general BS. What made Mike think he could show up and try to disturb his walk through the shadow of death. Ducking beneath the metal construct he made his way onto the next rooftop.

"Yo – wait up!" Hints didn't come any bigger than being walked away from, but it didn't stop Mikey from taking up pursuit. With a cursory glance heavenwards he cleared the gap, landing with a slap, thud and slip on a clear glass skylight. "Raphie!" the domed shell of hos brother continued retreating from him. "RAPH!" sliding from the glass surface Mikey caught him up for the third time. "Me an' you; well I've been thinkin'" … he flashed him a grin, yea Mike doing thought and advice in one night, stranger things couldn't happen even if you tried to plan it. "and I think we could do wit' a heart to heart!"

That stopped Raphael in his tracks, turning back incredulously he met Mike ever optimistic eye with his own cynical one. "Heart to heart huh? Things must be serious then" he could do with some entertainment. "Well, whateva words o'advice yo'got from the cereal box …" he spat, slouching against the slick grey lip of the apartment roof. Spreading his arms behind him so that his weight was appropriately braced he invited Mike to continue with a small nod of his head.

Now that Mike had been given the stage he wasn't sure how best to go about this. Smiling nervously, he pulled his sodden bandanna tails from his neck, letting them instead slap against the lip of his shell. "I got a lot to say …" he called over another crash of thunder, "And I kinda want to get it all out before yo' go all crazy …"

Raph snorted, and leant back a little further, "Geddonwit'it." He had things to do, places to be, the odd punks whose skull he could crack.

"Al'aight …" Mike cleared his throat, the change in his tone from playful to serious lost in the tempest that danced around them. "You need to grow up."

"Say what!"

"Grow up. Y'know that thing where you start actin' you age and not your shoe size." Mike paused and waited to see if the illuminate look of sheer anger was going to fade, instead as he partially expected it only grew into a larger mask of disgust and vitriol.

Freeing himself from his casual ledge the older of the two stalked over and stood beak to beak with him. "Yo'tellin' me what t'do?" beneath the anger the disbelief at such a statement was evident. And that disbelief was fed another round when Mike responded.

"Well yea. I'm getting' fed up of having to pump back up the atmosphere at home." Glancing to the ground Mike didn't back down from the challenge for personal space. In fact the petulant way in which he delivered his response made it sound like Mike had, in a break from a norm, actually given it a lot of thought. Enough to warrant a foray into the city on a shitty night, to pick a fight with an incredibly pissed off Raph.

It looked like Raph might actually lay a fist into Mike's jaw for such a blatant disregard for his brother's temper, and if had been Leo it would have ended that way without a doubt. Narrowing his eyes Raphael made the conscious decision to take a very real step back from the situation as it was unfolding. Mullling it over in his head he barked out a crude laugh, even going so far as to bend over double and humour him further by laughing at the notion. "Good joke Mike!" Though it didn't melt his anger entirely it did serve slightly in lifting the worst of the cynical bitterness that played in his head.

The corner of Mike's mouth twitched upwards and he frowned at his brother. "I'm not kiddin' …" he responded, his head tilting to one side, and his body language tensing subtly throughout. Yea he goofed off a lot and passed the responsibility buck all too often, but now that he had something to say he darn well wanted to get it said. "It's getting real old Raph. This hulk-smash-hulk-crash act you have running; it gotta stop."

The mirth, and benefit of the doubt abruptly ended. "Yo'comparin' me t'so'e dumbass comic book creep?"

"Sorta." Mike had the sense to read his brother's foul mood, and back off slightly. "I mean you've got this love-hate thing going on with the folks of NY; yet you're out here every night crackin' skulls and kickin' shit." Again Mike's arm went to the bandanna tails, and he fiddled with them. It was his 'nervous' act, a way of dealing with the nerves that were swirling about in the back. "I don't gettit."

Raphael's eyes narrowed, "O'course yo'don't gettit Mi-chel." Raph barked over the weather, "These idiots need freaks like us t'make sure they can get there snotty little rich bitch asses home at the end o'a long day. That is what I do … I do sh!t for this sh!thole insteada sittin' round like Fearless would have us waitin' fer th'fight t'come our way."

"So … you're sayin' you like this?" Mike asked, trying to get his head around the whole messed up concept. "You like comin' out causing Hell and hurting like –everything- in a twenty mile radius."

"Yea! Like I been sayin' these ingrates need so'eone to wipe their fuckin' asses. Cos no one else is …" he paused on the verge of a rant he continued onwards, his hand shooting up to cut Mikey clean out of his next line. "An'yo'wanna know so'ethin' else baby bro? These ungrateful sh!theads can't even say 'thanks' when yo'DO help em out. Instead its all screams an' tantys an'callin' the cops, or pullin'out the Mace..."

"There are like a bazillion people in NY!" Mike got his words in after what felt like forever. "Yo'can't go round sayin' their all punks an'stuff!"

Arms folded over his chest and he surveyed Mike with narrowed eyes, "I spend mo'e time out in this dump than you, or Don, or Leo put t'getha, I think I know how the story goes."

For a moment Mike considered pointing out that Leo probably spent the same amount of time out looking for Raphael as Raph did out looking for punks. Holding his tongue on that one he continued on the train of thought that had brought him out here. "That is just the the types you looking up. I mean look at Ape and Case –they're all good, and they can't be the only two folks in the WHOLE of the city with common sense."

"Wanna bet?" Raph's raised eye ridge, and slouched stance clearly contradicted Mike's optimism. And if it took him all night he was going to hafta make Mike see sense.

Again Mike was quiet, giving the lightening above his head a chance to split the sky with a fiercely bright line of electric blue. The light it cast down momentarily bathing the brothers in equal amounts of light and dark before fading away. "Yea!" if it was the one thing that he was renowned for it was his own brand of Mike logic. "Ever occurred to ya Raph that maybe you're making it worse for yaself?" Mike's hands moved to the base of his shell and as he straightened himself up he used them as a brace. In the constantly shifting light it added an extra two inches to his height.

"What!" the rumble of thunder drowned out Raph's enraged screech.

"Ya heard me." Mike hollered back, slightly on edge over the myriad of negative emotions his brother had just let pass over his face. "Ya come on out into this city in a bad mood, looking for shit. No wonder its lettin' you down! I mean have you ever come out here once when you have been in a good mood? I'll answer that one for you – _nu-uh_. I betcha could find a million people like Ape if you just went lookin' for them in the right places."

"An'fer ever' Ape yo'turned up I guarantee you'll find ten more Hun's."

It was like listening to a broken record play, letting out a frustrated cluck Mike moved on in his attack. "Oh my God! Can you hear that broken record you got playing for a mouthpiece! You go lookin' for bad things so bad things happen to you. It's not rocket science it's karma! And then to add insult to injury you got this whole 'no one knows how I feel' vibe going on …"

It was Mike's turn to rant, and it was Raph's turn to cut him off as he was reaching his point. "Woah – betta look out, here comes Mikey the Mindreader …"

It was Michelangelo's turn to narrow his eyes and take offence at the manner he was addressed in. Dropping his jaw slightly he shook the rain water from his face and glared at Raph through the icy sheets that were pelting them both. "Last time I checked you weren't the only freak in NYC Raphie." He informed him curtly, "And if you got that Statten Island sized, 'no one knows what its like' chip off ya shoulder I reckon you'd probably see it too." Straightening himself upright he seemed to have finally shut Raphael up; or at least he had for this moment in time. "There are like six million peeps in this city – sooner or later our secret is gonna get out. Now the thing is, they're either gonna love us, or they're gonna hate us. An' yo'keep this shit up I'm gonna go with that second one." Mike's eyes scanned the entire area, he was clearly stringing together his thoughts as he voiced them, in the best way he could. It was also clear that he had been weighing up this entire argument up in his mind for several days. It was certainly not a spur of the moment decision, and rant. "I'm just sayin' when the shit hits the fan we got ourselves one chance to get it right … and this feeling sorry for yourself, look at me the lonely forgotten wannabe hero isn't doing no one no favours …"

"Oh! This is all about me and MY fucking ego now!" when Raph did finally find his voice again it was not to say willingly accept that his brother might actually have a point. The things that Mike had said had hit a target of sorts inside Raph, and as he always did he turned pain into anger. "I'm sorry Mikey! Here was me thinkin' that here I was getting a pep talk from someone who knew how shit went down on the streets. Not my baby brother who spends more time with his lard shaped ARSE in front of the telly day in day out. Of course… you totally know how the real world works dontcha! …"

As the recriminations and insults began to come pouring forth he began to wonder why the Heck he had bothered signing himself up for a chill by venturing out in this weather. Bringing his arms up he made a swift slicing motion through the air, indicating he was calling time on this part of the conversation. "You know what Raph?" he hollered, backing down from the entire mess, "Do whatever the Heck you want – just stop messin' it up fer the rest of us!

Raphael remained perfectly still, turning back to face the city he closed his eyes, his tongue running around the inside of his cheek. He began to shake though whether it was with cold or with anger he wasn't sure. No amount of water would wash away the past few moments, and the repercussions as they began to settle in and form. More rain fell, and more lightening exploded over head in a sparkling display; in the distance another burglar alarm echoed through the night – in exactly the same way that Mikey's words ran through him.

_Complete_


End file.
